


Love in the Countryside, starring Henry Cole

by colisahotnorthernmess



Category: Find It Fix It Flog It RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dating, Ficlet, Fluff, Longing, M/M, Reality TV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-16 12:30:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21036269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colisahotnorthernmess/pseuds/colisahotnorthernmess
Summary: AU where Henry is single and goes on the BBC programme 'Love in the Countryside' - after speed dating several suitors, he brings three of them back with him to help out in the sheds, with upcycles and bikes. But none of them tickle his fancy - quite the opposite actually. And, at the end of it, he's left with one person on his mind, and that person's Simon.





	Love in the Countryside, starring Henry Cole

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that this is a work of fiction involving real people written by myself - it is a completely made-up fantasy and is in no way intended to cause offence.

"So... Henry," Sara Cox sat down opposite him, "How can _you_ still be single?"  
  
Henry laughed. It sounded like a chat-up line from a lovely lady on a night out, but it was anything but - Sara was hosting a BBC programme called 'Love in the Countryside' and Henry had _indeed_ been looking for it. Too long had he been living the single life. He couldn't even remember the last time he had a date. Did people of his age even _have_ dates? As a biker, sometimes it was rather nice to be a lone wolf, out there on the road with nothing but the wind in your hair and the smell of the road to keep you company. But, it didn't keep you warm at night, and therein lay the flaw in the lifestyle.  
  
"Is it really so hard to find love in Oxfordshire?" she went on, grilling him. He chatted away to camera for a little while about his failures in love, as they sipped away on their drinks. They were in a trendy pub, in the capital, following the part of the show where Henry would first meet with his potential suitors - where pints had cost the best part of a tenner, but - luckily - that was all covered by the production company. And he was glad for that, because he'd needed a bit of Dutch courage for this 'speed dating' malarkey.  
  
"Well..." he started, "...It might be when you're an old relic, like me."  
  
"Aww! Don't sell yourself short, chuck. The speed date seemed to go really well. Shall we go and meet the three gents you've picked?"  
  
Cole had been faced with a room of surprisingly handsome chaps, and he'd gone on to pick three of them to join him in his sheds, to help him tinker, work on his upcycling projects and fix up the motorbikes: a Scottish biker, sporting a bandana and plaits in his grey beard; a Mancunian hipster barman, with whom the presenter had shared a love of oversized flat caps; and a London businessman, devilishly good-looking, dressed in Savile Row's finest, but who looked like he wouldn't be seen dead in a pair of overalls. However, _sadly_, Henry hadn't been over-enamoured with any of them. And they didn't pass the acid test: best friend Guy didn't think they were up to much either - he thought they were all posers.

In the end - contrary to the idea behind the programme - Henry decided not to choose any of the three who had written him love letters. The suited banker was too busy tracking his stocks and shares on the laptop to spend any time with his host - the bartender invited Henry back to his home town to visit his cocktail bar-cum-Lancastrian 'tapas' restaurant, but no thanks to that (black pudding on a stick, anyone?) - and the vain biker was more interested, most predictably, in rubbing down the motorcycles, and admiring his own reflection in the shiny polished surface to boot. Cole didn't see love in any of this; he wanted somebody genuine - somebody _real_.

"What happened in the end?" Sara asked him, sympathetically, covering his hand with hers. They were reconvening nearly a month later, in a picturesque Cotswold cafe, closer to where Henry lived and infinitely more his style - he needed a bit of 'down to earth' after these past weeks. "Were they not really your type?"

"I don't know... I suppose I'm looking for someone who... doesn't take themselves too seriously. Someone who is themselves - does what it says on the tin, you know. Someone who doesn't mind spending time with me, even if we're just rummaging around an old shed or something," a smile began to creep over his face, and the camera saw him turning to one side, wistfully staring into the middle distance, "Someone who makes me laugh. They wouldn't have to be into biking, so long as they could fake a passing interest. Someone gorgeous. Someone from Liverpool. Someone who might have been in _Brookside_."

"Gosh, it sounds like you've got someone in mind," came a gasp.

"I have, Sara. I have," he admitted. "There is this... person."

"Then why don't you go to him?"

"Why _don't_ I go to him?" Henry said, wide-mouthed in realisation. "Why _don't_ I?" It wasn't long before the Find It, Fix It, Flog It star was disappearing from the square of the cameraman's lens. "Skid," he cried out, the sound of his footsteps the only thing captured on-screen, "Get the Landy started - we're going up North, mate!"

Sara grinned as she watched Henry grab Guy by the arm and make a bid for the door; he had quickly bolted through it and was in the car before she could even take another drink from her cup. "Another success story," she triumphantly advised the crew, finishing off the last dregs of her tea, "We've cracked another one."


End file.
